IT Committee Meeting Minutes

February 9, 2016

Present:  Anne Bell, Mike Borfitz, Dick Hartley, Bill Pappas, Jim Spallone, John Scott, Steve Yovan, Hans Zassenhaus

1. Follow-up on January 5 items

a. Windows 10 will be downloaded on a couple of PC’s and studied in preparation for making a recommendation by June 1 for moving to it or remaining in the current mode.  (“Free downloads” expire on July1.)

b. People responding to the IT want-ad were discussed:

i. John Scott – Bill Pappas invited John to join the IT committee.  While he is a seasonal resident, John is in The Villages for 9 months each year.

ii. Jim Sikora – had some experience, but not with programming in Access; was provided with our program

iii. Julie Sullivan – no real programming experience and not interested in spending the time a strong back-up might need to devote to the job

iv. Will Rivera  - most promising; was provided with our program

v. Dick Summe – only in The Villages January through March

vi. Elenore Wanna – lives in Hong Kong

c. Plans were made to continue with the search for help by talking of the need again at the February 9 General Membership Meeting and sending the want-ad out via our newsletter.

d. Five LogMeIn licenses were ordered.

2. New Topics

a. Future of Access program – Dick Hartley voiced concern for the lack of depth of support for our VWC Access program, should anything catastrophic happen to the program or the few people (e.g. himself) who know and understand the program.  He suggested that we consider evaluating some “off-the-shelf” programs that might meet our needs and/or move some of the workload from the current program.  To that effect, he asked each Committee member to Google check-in systems that are available before the next meeting.

Our system is currently working well and support is minimal, but identifying what a Plan B might look like is the proactive thing to do.  Note was made that a most critical part of our system is the management of monitors.

b. Request for Tool Crib Support – Mike shared with the committee a request from Tool Crib Manager Bob Behrens for IT help with managing the member storage bin system.  Bill Pappas agree to follow-up with Bob.

c. Website Support – Hans reported that Julie Sullivan and John (Jack) Kabat are currently willing to support him with posting items on the website, but are not proficient enough to work independently.

After discussion among the team in trying to understand the steps needed to transfer Windows documents to website-friendly items for distribution, Hans agreed to demonstrate the steps at the next IT meeting.  THAT MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE AT MIKE’S HOME ON 646 SHERWOOD ST ON MARCH 8 AT 3:00. 

Note was made that Bill Pappas currently is back-up for admin on the website.

3. Next Meeting

As noted above, the March meeting will take place at 3:00 PM on Tuesday March 8 at 646 Sherwood St.  It precedes the EOC meeting at 6:30 and the General Membership meeting at 7:00 at Laurel Manor.  In the face of time constraints, eats and drinks will be provided at the IT meeting.